EPA spending nearly $25,000 on soundproof phone booth

The Environmental Protection Agency is quietly spending close to $25,000 for Administrator Scott Pruitt to have a soundproof booth, a report said.

EPA officials signed a $24,750 contract with a company Acoustical Solutions, whose consultant Steve Snider told the Washington Post that it was “essentially a secure phone booth that couldn’t be breached from a data point of view or from someone standing outside eavesdropping.”

The EPA already has a “Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility” separate from Pruitt’s office, according to the Post, though an agency spokeswoman said that the SCIF was something that her organization “needs to have updated.”

The spokeswoman noted that other federal agencies also have similar rooms, though it was not clear what is wrong with the current SCIF.